Week 11 DFS fades and players to avoid

New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram (22) runs during the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

If you were here for the fades last week, you were happy with the results. And if you paired it with the locks of the week, you were even happier. But what makes a player a fade? Some have asked me about this, so I want to clarify. Just because a player is on this list, it does not mean that he’s going to have a terrible game.

When looking at a player, there are many things that need to be considered. What type of DFS games are you playing (cash or tournament)? What is that player’s matchup? What is his cost, and are there other players around his price that are safer options? What does his ownership look like? As you can see, there are many things that go into fading a player. Fortunately for you, I do that work for you. So let’s take a look at which players are not worth their salaries in Week 11.

Quarterbacks

Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals (at Vikings)

Just because Palmer has thrown for at least 340 yards in each of the last four games doesn’t mean that you should want to play him in DFS this week. Even if he is playing against a Vikings team that has lost four straight games. If you’ve been paying attention to Vikings games, they aren’t losing because they’re allowing quarterbacks to destroy them. As a matter of fact, it’s the opposite. Since the start of Week 3, they have allowed just one quarterback to score more than 14 points, and that was Kirk Cousins in Week 10, who threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns. It wasn’t a bad game, but it wasn’t a great one, either. So when you look at their box scores, the first thing you would notice is that they have yet to allow a quarterback to throw for more than 271 yards, and have held opposing quarterbacks to one or zero touchdowns in six of nine games this year. And it’s not like they have played scrubs, as Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers and Marcus Mariota have all been on their slate. So when you look at Palmer, a quarterback who himself has thrown one or zero touchdowns in five of his last six games, it’s not exactly appealing. Add in the fact that this game is on the road and he may be playing with a less-than-100-percent Larry Fitzgerald, and you have yourself a fade.